CROIX-DES-BOUQUETS, Haiti -- A relaxed Bill Clinton gave the dozens of oversized aluminum fish tanks a once-over and issued his best sales pitch to the busload of foreign investors he had brought along.

The fish farm not only provides a high source of protein to Haitians, but it puts money in poor people's pockets, Clinton said as four Haitian farmers looked on, wondering what to make of the high-profile visit by the silver-haired, ex-U.S. president and what it means for their hard-luck lives.

``Anybody who invests in this makes a profit right away,'' Clinton, the United Nations special envoy for Haiti, said about the farm, which raises tilapia and splits the profits with local farmers. ``It is the least expensive, highest-guaranteed return project I have seen in any country in which I've worked, anywhere in the world.''

As Clinton ended his third visit in seven months as Haiti's chief spokesman, the Inter-American Development Bank and United Nations were still surveying how many, if any, new investments were forged or jobs created because of the trade mission. The one-day event attracted 600 participants, at least 200 of them foreign investors.

``This is a process,'' said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno, addressing the fact that no large-scale, job-creating investments were announced at the end of the event. ``What we need to do is work together.''

Still, even as Clinton and Moreno pledge to follow up with investors, some Haitian business leaders are calling the conference a success. It brought people to Haiti who otherwise would not have come and sent a signal that after years of political turmoil and economic woes, the storm-battered nation is once again courting foreign investments.

``The most important thing here is we are not talking about aid, we are not talking about stability, we are not talking about assistance,'' said Georges Sassine, Haiti's point man on the U.S. Congress-approved HOPE II legislation, which aims to create jobs here by giving local garment manufacturers duty-free access to the U.S. market.

``We are talking about actual businesses. This is the next level. Even if nothing concrete comes out of this, which I doubt, it already has been successful,'' he said. ``The fact that these people agreed to come, came and these discussions took place, to me is a big success. Now it depends on us, the follow-up.''

In the past year, Haitian businessmen and women have invested millions of dollars in new ventures including upscale hotels, restaurants, shopping centers in Petionville, and a new electrical plant near Cité Soleil. But the investments are a drop in the bucket in a place where the vast majority of the country's 9 million citizens live on less than $2 a day and scrape a living off the edges of a formal economy with fewer than 300,000 jobs.

As the international community pushes investment, Clinton, the star marketer, has his work cut out. Local Haitian investors still face high loan rates, exorbitant port fees, long customs waits and weak government laws.

``The government has some specific things to do, such as improve the energy -- the availability and the costs. That should be the first priority,'' said Pierre-Marie Boisson, an economist and member of a government committee examining ways to make Haiti competitive. ``If I had a chance to speak with Mr. Clinton, I would tell him he should work with the government to advise them to do the basic things to improve the business environment. And to improve that requires government decisions, and some decisions are not that difficult.''

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@